NATO announces next leaders' summit will be in Lithuania

BRUSSELS (AP) - U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will hold their next scheduled summit in Lithuania next July, the military alliance's top civilian official said Wednesday, as Russia's war on Ukraine fuels security tensions in Europe and the North Atlantic region.

'œWe face the most complex and unpredictable security environment since the Cold War,'ť NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, as he announced that heads of state and government from the 30 member nations would meet in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on July 11-12, 2023.

Stoltenberg said the leaders would discuss ways to boost the defenses of NATO member countries near Russia and Ukraine, and continue their support to the war-ravaged country.

They will also review defense spending, which increased steadily after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 but then rose steeply after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February.